The Long Road Home Romance Collection

by Judi Ann Ehresman

  The Long Road Home © 2010 by Judi Ann Ehresman

  On the Wings of Grace © 2010 by Judi Ann Ehresman

  Where Two Agree © 2011 by Judi Ann Ehresman

  The Reluctant Immigrant © 2008 by Naomi Mitchum

  Print ISBN 978-1-63058-456-6

  eBook Editions:

  Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-63058-949-3

  Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-63058-950-9

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

  All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Song/hymn on pages 54–55, © 2010 by Luke Ehresman

  The Man in the Moon old rhyme taken from Holton-Curry Readers, Volume 2, (1914), as noted in http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=hes&p=1737.

  Traditional Doxology, page 393: words by Thomas Ken, 1674; music attributed to Louis Bourgeois, 1551.

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the authors’ imaginations.

  Published by Barbour Books, an imprint of Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com, in association with OakTara Publishers, www.oaktara.com.

  Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

  Printed in Canada.

  Contents

  The Long Road Home

  On the Wings of Grace

  Where Two Agree

  About the Author: Judi Ann Ehresman

  The Reluctant Immigrant

  About the Author: Naomi Mitchum

  THE LONG ROAD

  HOME

  The Hand of God,

  Book One

  by Judi Ann Ehresman

  Dedication

  To my husband and best friend,

  Richard Ehresman

  And to our children:

  Nathan and Ruth Ehresman

  Luke and Elizabeth Ehresman

  Also in loving memory of

  Bonnie Glasspoole, my dearest girlfriend on earth,

  who is now home in heaven

  Chapter 1

  The ground was hard for that time of year. The snows had melted early, and the rains had not been as heavy as usual for March in Indiana. Now that April was here, the ground was already solid enough for Mandy Evanston to walk on without soaking through her well-worn boots.

  Even though the day promised to be a pleasant one for April, the sun had not been up long enough to create much warmth. The early morning chill worked its icy fingers up her spine and made her shiver. She pulled her coat closer about her.

  Alone…alone…alone…alone…alone. Each step she took seemed to stamp out the rhythm of her thoughts, reminding her she was alone. Alone in the woods. Alone for the summer. Totally and completely alone in the world.

  “I will not think of it as being alone,” she murmured to herself. “With this little one inside me, I am not completely alone. And Ethan said he would be back in August to get us ready for winter, so that is only, let’s see—” she pulled one hand free from her woolen pocket and counted on her fingers—“April, May, June, July…four months, maybe five. I will keep myself busy these next few months, and time will fly. By the time Ethan comes home, I can tell him about the little one. He will be excited, and then the waiting will not be so long for him.”

  Once again she was quiet, listening to the sound of her footsteps and the skittering, rustling noises of morning in the woods. The naked trees reached their blackened branches to the sky as though begging for warmth, for the covering of leaves soon to grow on their dead-looking appendages. Mandy breathed deeply of the many scents that formed the one fragrance of the woods. She slowed to a quiet walk. After all, what was the rush, really?

  Mandy had felt alone for much of her life. Her parents had died within a week of one another from an illness that had swept through their town, leaving her alone as a young child. She had stayed with a neighbor until her father’s brother had been traced. When her uncle came to claim her, she tried to be brave and grown up. He was kind enough to her, but when he took her home, it didn’t take long to realize her aunt did not truly welcome Mandy. She resented having to care for another child. So Mandy grew up as more of a servant than one of the family and was always left quite alone.

  As she strolled through the woods now, she thought about the time she met Ethan. He was working in a store in Boston to which she was often sent by her aunt. She couldn’t help being attracted to his energy, friendliness, kindness, and handsome looks. Then one day he offered to carry her packages home for her, and she was speechless. For several months he continued carrying her packages, but she always retrieved them just before they got to her aunt’s home and sent him on his way. She was afraid that if her aunt discovered she had a friend, she would accuse Mandy of “frittering away her time” and her errands would end. Then she might never have a chance to see him again and would miss their chats, laughs, and brief walks together. She smiled at the warm memory.

  One day Ethan started talking of joining a wagon train that was coming through their town as it headed to the unsettled West. He wanted to travel clear out to Ohio, or even Indiana, where land could be had for a song and a man could live off the land and the woods. He shared his excitement about the possibility with her for quite a while until he said he’d finally decided to do it. When he told her he planned to leave in the spring, she couldn’t stop the tears from coming.

  “Would you miss me?” he asked, gazing at her tenderly.

  She hadn’t been able to find any words. Her throat was tight, her tongue paralyzed. So she had just looked at him and mutely nodded.

  He clasped her arm and steered her into a nearby alleyway behind the livery. “Mandy,” he said, his eyes alight with hope, “will you marry me and go with me?”

  She hadn’t even had to think about it. Again she simply nodded.

  Things happened swiftly after that as she helped Ethan plan and prepare for their journey. Each time she went to the store, Ethan had her select goods to add to the wagon he had purchased.

  Finally the day came when she packed all of her earthly possessions, wrote a letter of thanks to leave for her aunt and uncle, and slipped off quietly to meet Ethan at the minister’s house for a quick wedding ceremony.

  Within an hour of the ceremony, Mr. and Mrs. Ethan Evanston were headed to the West on a wagon train.

  That was, let’s see, this May will make six years. Time had flown. Ethan was such a wonderful husband. Mandy still smiled when she thought about how handsome he was. She couldn’t help but notice the way women on the wagon train had looked at him and blushed when he spoke to them. But he seemed oblivious of his effect on women. And now he would be a daddy. Oh, he would make a wonderful daddy! She hoped the baby looked just like Ethan.

  Oh, Ethan, why did you need to go away? Why do you think you have to make money on the railroads? Why do you get so restless? Her mind went over and over the questions she’d asked him repeatedly these last few weeks. None of his answers had completely satisfied her, but she was determined not to become a whining, nagging wife like her aunt. So she had tried to cheerfully support his decision, even though she couldn’t understand his thinking.

  This morning, as she’d walked with him as far as he allowed, she had still tried to change his mind without pleading for him to stay with her. Now, as she walked the six miles
back to the cabin, she was content with herself for not using her knowledge of the coming baby to make him stay home. She knew she could make it through the summer, and then when he came home, they would have only a few more months to wait for their baby to arrive. Just thinking about how excited Ethan would be when he discovered he would be a daddy renewed her determination to remain cheerful and patient until his return.

  From even before they married, Ethan had talked in a dreamy way about all the children he and Mandy would have and how they would love them, teach them, and be a happy family—something neither had known. They had seen happy families working and playing together, and both had longed for such an experience. But when year after year of their marriage had passed with no babies, they wondered if the best of life had passed them by. Until…

  Mandy had not wanted to tell Ethan at first, in case she was mistaken. Then, almost as soon as she felt quite certain, that Gerald fellow had talked to Ethan at the General Store and told him how much money men were being paid for laying tracks for the new railroad coming west. From that time on she could sense restlessness in Ethan. No amount of talking could change his mind, and she didn’t want him to feel tied down because of the baby. She was afraid he might resent her and the baby, so she had kept her secret. Now she would count the months until he came home, and they could be the family they had always dreamed of being.

  She glanced around at the forest, admiring its beauty. Squirrels chattered and scampered; birds sang and called. Mandy made a game of identifying how many different birds she heard and saw. She shuddered as she saw a plump rabbit hop quickly out of sight. Ethan had once showed her how to catch and clean rabbits for meat, but she didn’t think she could kill one herself unless she became very, very hungry. She had a difficult enough time wringing the neck of a chicken, but that seemed altogether different than killing a soft, quiet rabbit. Why? She couldn’t say for certain, but it just did.

  The next day the sun reached in Mandy’s window, stretching its long beams over to the bed, draping warmth across her face. As the light gently massaged her eyelids open, she tugged the quilts up around her neck and turned her face away from its brightness. Lazily she reached over to pull herself close to Ethan’s warmth….

  She sat up abruptly. Then she remembered: Ethan was gone. This was her first morning in almost six years to wake up alone and cold in her bed. Somehow the quilts and bright pillows she had carefully stitched to make their cabin cozy and bright did not hold the same warmth and cheer they had before. In fact, she found herself feeling quite glum.

  “I have to stop thinking this way,” she told herself. “I will not become melancholy. After all, I still have the baby, and Ethan won’t be gone forever.”

  She swung her legs over the side of the bed but groaned as she started to stand. Every muscle in her body screamed out in rebellion. She chuckled. “Guess I had better pace myself a little better today. But yesterday’s work did make the day go quickly.”

  Yesterday morning, when she’d come back to the cabin, she could hardly stand the loneliness of the empty rooms. Reminders of Ethan and of all the things they had done together were everywhere. So she decided to take a walk around their small farm and form a plan for her days. As she fed the chickens and the few sheep and milked the two cows, she couldn’t keep the spring air and the earthiness of the freshly turned sod from filling her with a strong urge to plant her vegetable garden.

  She had carried the milk and eggs into the cabin, then taken down her box of seeds. Soon she was planting seeds in the soil Ethan had tilled up before he left. She worked long and hard, planting several rows at a time, then carrying buckets of water from the spring to water the seeds before patting the sod around them. She rested her back from carrying water by planting several more rows, and the cycle started all over again.

  By the time she finished, dusk chilled her, and she was hungry and exhausted. After putting away the garden tools in the shed, she was so tired she could hardly walk back up the hill to the cabin. She was thankful she had filled all the water buckets in the morning, because she was too tired to do it now, and she needed to warm a bucket of water for a bath.

  Once inside the cabin, she poured water into the big washday kettle and hung it in the fireplace to heat. She built the fire up, selected a large potato from last year’s garden, scrubbed it, and put it into the hot coals beneath the kettle. Stretching to ease her sore back, Mandy went out to milk the cows.

  By the time she returned to the cabin and placed the washtub by the fire, the water in the kettle was warm. She poured it into the tub, slipped out of her soiled dress, and scrubbed herself clean. The lavender soaps she made were quite refreshing, and as she dried herself, combed out her wet, tangled hair, and donned a clean nightgown, she began to feel much better.

  After pouring a cup of tea, she sat down to eat her potato with a thick slice of bread piled high with her homemade apple butter. Eyeing the washtub of dirty water, she decided it could wait until morning to be emptied. The day had flown.

  In the morning Mandy reviewed the work before her. Because of her impulsive gardening yesterday, she could hardly move today, yet the planting had made the day pass quickly. She needed a plan for her summer.

  After donning a fresh work dress, she straightened the sheets, pulled up the quilts, smoothing the wrinkles out and checking to be sure each quilt laid straight. She smiled as she remembered Ethan teasing her about the fact that she wanted the blankets to lay perfectly straight on the bed. But in spite of his teasing, he often commented to her about how nice she had made their home. She was proud and pleased that he appreciated all the little touches that made their cabin home.

  While the water boiled for her tea, she made short work of emptying the bathwater, cleaning out the tub, and hanging it on its peg on the back side of the cabin. Taking out her precious pad of paper, Mandy chose one clean page and, while she ate her egg and bread and drank her tea, started her list.

  Mandy listed all the chores she would normally do in a summer, such as keeping the garden up, canning and drying her garden produce, tying up her herbs to dry, washing windows, washing, starching, and ironing all the curtains in the cabin and rehanging them, as well as some projects she had not done before, such as making baby quilts, diapers, nightgowns, and preparing the other bedroom for the baby. She was thankful she’d stocked up on fabrics from the store Ethan had worked in back in Boston before they traveled, not knowing if there were stores or places in the untamed West to purchase such necessities. And there had already been plenty of opportunity to use the materials from her trunks for curtains, quilts, clothes, etc. She added to her list taking everything out of her cupboards and off the shelves so she could thoroughly clean the cabin.

  When she saw the length of her list, Mandy smiled. This summer would pass quickly if she was to accomplish all of this, and then Ethan would be home and life would be wonderful again. But, today, she had better stop sipping tea and get some water boiling to wash her garden clothes as soon as the animals were fed and watered, the eggs gathered, and the cows milked.

  Chapter 2

  One day seemed almost the same as the next now, and Mandy found herself talking out loud more and more. She was so lonely that sometimes she would go to the barn and converse with the cows, mules, and sheep. She’d never before enjoyed cleaning stalls and spending time with the farm animals, but they soon recognized her voice and responded by nuzzling noses or turning a head as she milked or patted them.

  Mandy also talked more and more to the barn cat, but Tabby was not as much company as the other farm animals. Other than rubbing herself on Mandy’s skirts and shedding hair all over them, she would hardly glance at Mandy. Mostly the cat simply wanted a sunny spot to sleep. But Mandy knew Tabby was about to have her kittens, so she forgave the cat wanting some rest time.

  Mandy talked aloud to the baby she carried, too. Sometimes she wondered if it was only her love for the baby or from sheer loneliness. Ethan had been gone a little
more than four weeks, and she had not seen another human being in all that time. She desperately craved fellowship.

  As the clouds chased one another across the late morning sky, Mandy frowned. It was now the first week of May, and a shower would be welcome, but these looked too far away for rain. The gray sky actually looked like snow. Suddenly she realized that planting a garden the first week of April might not be a good idea in Indiana.

  Opening the back door to peer down at the garden by the creek, Mandy felt the blast of cold and knew she’d better do something quickly if she wanted to save those little green sprouts peeking above the rich, dark sod.

  Pulling on a heavy sweater as she ran, she first went to the shed for the wooden wheelbarrow Ethan had made for hauling wood. She pushed the heavy thing into the woods, filled it with leaves and pine needles, and trundled each load to the garden, where she pressed armloads of the leaves over each row of tender shoots. Long before she was finished, the snow started falling, but Mandy couldn’t bear the thought of losing one precious seedling, so she worked on. Finally, each row was lovingly covered with its mound of warm protection, and Mandy trudged back up the hill with the wheelbarrow.

  “We sure had a workout today, Little One. One of these days you’ll be running behind me, helping me cover the tiny shoots and getting yourself all dirty in the process.” Picturing the scene in her mind’s eye, she smiled as she closed the door of the shed.

  Since the wind was picking up, chilling the air, Mandy decided to do the evening chores a little early, so she could stay by the fire for the evening. As she finished milking the second cow, the barn door flew open, startling the cows with the noise and blast of cold air, making Bridget kick the bucket and spill most of the evening’s milk on the straw. Mandy patted Bridget, talking quietly to her as she rescued what was left of the milk. Taking the remaining milk in the bucket, Mandy struggled to close the barn door against the fierce wind. Finally, the latch was fastened securely, and she hurried back to the warmth of the cabin.